Sunday, July 13, 2014

The Eternals - City Of The Toads!

The focus of The Eternals shifts when we follow Thena and her once-upon-a-time paramour Kro into the Deviant "City of the Toads", otherwise called Lemuria deep down in the ocean. There we get a close up view of Deviant society, a society committed to chaos seemingly because of the people's genetic variables. The themes of the the larger story begin to sharpen as we look through Thena's eyes at a society which destroys those of its population who have been born too far from some proscribed set of expectations. These "Rejects" are summarily killed in methods which evoke the depraved Nazi concentration camps and in spectator-filled arenas which call to mind the gladitorial spectacles of a declining Roman Empire.

We meet two of these "Rejects", one called simply that and the other named Karkus. The "Reject" is a stunningly handsome Deviant variation (at least by Eternal and Human standards) but is consumed with a lust for violence while Karkus, a giant red tank of a creature seems possessed of a gentler spirit. Kirby is clearly and bluntly contradicting some of the implications of his Deviant-Human-Eternal "trichotomy" (I think I just coined that word) by suggesting it's less about nature and more about nurture which determines destiny. Kro also speaks to this notion.

All the while this unfolding, Eson of the Celestial Fourth Host seeks out his post on Earth for the fifty year judgment. He appears off the beaches of Miami before descending into the depths.

What he seeks is nothing less than Lemuria itself, the "City of the Toads" and he moves to bring it down. While Lemuria begins to flood Thena answers a far-off call from Olympia and takes both the Reject and Karkus under her protection and teleports out of the city leaving Kro behind, bewildered and angry.

All the while this has been happening the summons Thena responds to is from Zuras himself and all Eternals are required to respond. That will be the focus of a later installment.